Explaining the Rise of Third Parties in European Politics Hamid Akın ÜNVER* Abstract Introduction
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Corrective Parties and Conveyor Coalitions: Explaining the Rise of Third Parties in European Politics Hamid Akın ÜNVER* Abstract Introduction Third parties have grown increasingly Since the onset of the Syrian Civil War relevant in European politics in recent years, and the subsequent emergence of the with the rise of status-quo changing parties such as Podemos in Spain, Syriza in Greece, refugee crisis, many European countries UKIP in Britain and the Front National have been witnessing electoral gains for in France. This article aims to bridge the far-right and/or populist parties. These gap in the comparative politics literature by introducing two new types of third parties in parties have either been newcomers to European politics through their bargaining and politics (or their leaders- such as Syriza mediation, crisis behavior and electoral appeal. in Greece, or Podemos in Spain), or In doing so, this study proposes that leadership have been stagnant parties that were cult, localization of support and rigidness of ideology varies across third parties, due to the unable to increase their votes despite existence of two types of third parties; conveyor existing within their respective political coalitions and corrective parties. The article spectrums for a long time (such as the uses the case studies of Syriza and Podemos as ‘conveyor coalitions’ and of the Front National Front National in France). In Austria and UKIP as ‘corrective parties’. By introducing for example, the far-right Freedom these two new concepts, the article attempts Party had to wait for more than half a to bestow future scholarly studies with better century to break the political consensus tools for predicting and studying rapidly rising populist parties. away from far- right parties, which had prevailed in the country since Key Words Since the onset of the Syrian Civil War and the subsequent Party Politics, Third Parties, European Politics, Electoral Behavior, Corrective Parties, Conveyor emergence of the refugee crisis, Coalitions. many European countries have been witnessing electoral gains * Asst. Prof. Dr., Kadir Has University, Department of International Relations, Kadir for far-right and/or populist Has Caddesi, Cibali, 34083, İstanbul, Turkey. parties. E-mail: [email protected] 1 PERCEPTIONS, Summer 2016, Volume XXI, Number 2, pp. 1-28. Hamid Akın Ünver the end of World War II. This owed backlash against neoliberalism and a largely to growing anti-immigration growing aloofness of the European sentiments after the Syrian civil war elites towards the Greek and Spanish and their subsequent appeal for the financial crises, both parties built rapid far-right – a momentum that has been support through their Eurosceptic brewing since the EU Enlargement agendas. in 2004 and 2007, and intensifying This article aims to conduct an since 2011 with the refugees arriving inquiry into the nature of the newly in Europe from the Syrian civil war. emerging and/or rising parties in In the Greek Cypriot Administration, Europe. These parties either assume Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the third position in their political Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, systems for an extended period of Sweden, Slovakia and Switzerland too, time, or rise into prominence after anti-immigration parties have made serving brief periods as third parties. substantial electoral gains, much to the While mainstream political science is dismay of the proponents of the post- mostly concerned with party systems World War II European order. or governmental coalitions, patterns, changes and shifts of the first two parties Essentially a backlash against in political systems, a literature gap exists in terms of how these processes neoliberalism and a growing work outside of the first two parties. aloofness of the European elites This has been an analytical oversight, towards the Greek and Spanish as lack of interest in third parties has financial crises, both parties obscured our ability to forecast the built rapid support through emergence of the rising populist and their Eurosceptic agendas. revisionist parties in Europe and detect political grievances they best respond to. Within the limited attention they However, not all rising parties in have received in the literature, third Europe are far-right, or assert an parties have been conceptualized based anti-immigration agenda. Spanish on how their rise can be explained Podemos and Greek Syriza for theoretically; through increasing voter example, are left-wing populist parties independence,1 spatial voting theory,2 that address inequality, unemployment within strong majoritarian systems3 and economic stagnation from a and within median-voter theorem.4 In perspective of renegotiating austerity addition, more practical case studies measures with the EU. Essentially a have been applied with regard to third 2 Corrective Parties and Conveyor Coalitions: Explaining the Rise of Third Parties in European Politics parties (or lack thereof) in the United when the sum of second and third States,5 appeal and mobilization in party votes are equal to, or greater than Britain,6 competition and resilience in the first party (numerical significance). Germany7 and regional versus national Alternatively, third parties can also be voter patterns in France.8 However, significant in parliamentary voting a conceptualization of third parties sessions that require consensus larger as a theoretical and cross-country than the seats won by the first party, such phenomenon has been unforthcoming. as constitutional changes, declaration This is what this article intends to do. of war, or ratification of international treaties. In such cases, third parties become disproportionately significant, This study is based on the assumption mainly for first parties that need to that there is a gap in the literature on bypass the main opposition party, or comparative politics, which has largely muster a bigger parliamentary majority shied away from focusing on party to pass key policies. Still however, patterns outside of the first two parties. third parties must have enough seats In turn, the study is also structured in the parliament to make contextual upon the view that it is this disregard alliances work. If the first two parties that has prevented a proper agenda have an overwhelming dominance and ideological counter-discourse in a parliament, then third parties to emerge in Europe to mitigate the that have a politically or contextually effects of anti-immigration politics, as insignificant number of seats will not be well as the appeal towards far-right useful in either context. Furthermore, parties. Therefore, the article aims to if the first and second parties agree to address this gap and focuses exclusively form a majority coalition government, on third parties in European politics. third parties grow even more important Here, the article proposes two ways as the main opposition party, provided- of defining a ‘third party’. The first again- that they have enough seats definition is that of the party that gets in the parliament to make minority the third largest share of the votes in an opposition work. Third parties that election, significant enough to render have a tiny fraction of seats are not it as a balancer in coalition talks or significant in any context. parliamentary bargaining sessions. In that, a politically significant third party The second type of third party, as per ought to be ready to form a coalition the focus of this article, is a parliamentary with the second party so as to sideline, group, which is composed of two or or balance against the first party. To that more parties that can form frequent end, third parties become important and standing alliances that manifest 3 Hamid Akın Ünver into a unified voting bloc in the – may be characterized as third parties. parliament. Although such parties may have competing interests, agendas and Characteristics of Third ideologies, the need to balance the First Parties in Europe Party or exert political weight in key policy issues may force smaller parties into a third party voting bloc. However, A historical survey of third parties this is not the only way smaller parties in Europe yields several patterns that (whether Third or Fourth) make can be observed through multiple an impact in legislatures; they may political systems. First, the strength engage in issue alliances with the first and weakness (including the rise two parties as well (such as first and and demise) of third parties reflect confidence in the existing political fourth party block versus second and system. When either the hegemonic third party block). In that sense, if the party, or the competition between the vote difference between third, fourth first two parties has a high level of (or even fifth) parties is marginal and legitimacy and large popular support, their competition is tight, then any of third parties tend to be less relevant and such competing parties may be studied lose support. In Britain for example, as a ‘third party’. The best example is there has long been a two-party Germany, where the dominance of the competition between the Conservatives Free Democratic Party (FDP) has been and Labour. Up until the early 1900s, challenged by the Greens since 1983, when the Liberal Party (originally and the Greens replaced the FDP as founded in 1859) began to rise, the the third party from 1994-2005. In this two-party dominance continued. The context, both the FDP and the Greens emergence of the Liberal Party is owed can be evaluated as third parties as to a fundamentally structural question their competition remained strong over in British politics: how to manage the an extended period of time and each powers of the Crown and expand the party managed to replace the other political significance of the Parliament.9 more than once. While our first-type The Liberal Democrats have slowly, conceptualization of third parties is but consistently gained ground since an arithmetic measurement, where the 1955, reaching their highest vote third party is numerically a third party, percentage in 1983 when they won our second-type conceptualization 25.4 % of the vote.